It's So On

Yesterday I went on the Run Disney site to see if the dates for the 2012 race had been set yet. Lo and behold, they were. (Race weekend is February 24-26, 2012. Woohoo!) Thanks to the handy dandy clock they have on the site, that means I now officially have 342 days to get my butt--and the rest of this pathetic body--ready to run.

But then, to make matters worse, I decided to check out some of the pictures, videos and times from this year's race. Big mistake. As I perused the times, I wasn't bothered so much by the insanely short times of the race winners. These are obviously hardcore runners/athletes after all. Looking at their times in relation to what I'm capable of was apples to oranges.

And then I saw it--the drop box in the upper left hand corner titled "Age Groups and Divisions." Stupidly, I clicked the drop down menu to discover age groups ranging from 13 and under to...wait for it...Women 80 and over. Yes, you read that correctly.

Surely they just have to have that age category for equal opportunity purposes, right? Um, no. Turns out there was an entrant in that category and at the age of 82 she finished the race with a chip time of 3:21:59.

Oh, and just FYI, there were 12 finishers in the 70-74 category and 2 in the 75-79 category.

Sooo....if I had any thoughts of being able to talk my way out of this one, those old ladies just squashed them. Thanks. Now I'm stuck. There's no turning back. I have to do this now. I refuse to be outrun by someone more than twice my age.

I'm only kidding, of course. I am amazed and in awe of these women's accomplishments. I pray that one day I'll be the one that the young whippersnappers are grumbling about because I just kicked their butts. No, those women whom I have never met, have given me inspiration that even this horribly out of shape, mostly unmotivated, fountain Pepsi addicted, brain-lesioned 38 year old can do this. I think.